i think we need more cowbell....

 

Thanks to this thread I began in earnest to slash and burn things that I have accumulated since I installed thus current desktop computer in about 2014. Things like Arturia Pigment which has a large footprint, or very old 32 bit Oxford plugins from before the days of Abraham as well as a bunch of others that I either don't ever use or didn't ever remember installing are now in the waste can. It feels rather good.

 

I collect (free or paid) amp sims, IRs and effects because I'll never be able to have a wall of amps, cabinets, racks and pedals. The problem really is, do I need a wall of stuff in the first place? Probably not.

 

I think the biggest progress in VSTs in the next 5-10 years will come for people who don't have a lot of knowledge on how to use VSTs, i.e. AI mastering/mixing etc. I did an extensive comparison of plugins that I have on my computer, and I found that the VSTs from the years of 2012-2014 could theoretically do everything as well as the modern releases for me, but it often takes more time to find their sweet spots and use them in the right way. Even for amp sims, I found some old amp/cab combinations that - for me - could easily replace Neural DSP and the likes, but it took a bit experimentation. With virtual instruments it's a bit of a different story though, as there were some very notable improvements in the last 10 years, although further evolution also seems to have slowed down a bit in the last 4-5 years.

 

When I began to learn music production, I began to collect plugins as I had no idea which one I needed. After 3 years, I realized what I need is not so many. So, I use minimum of them these days.
Every DAW has the core tools. EQ, comp, reverb, delay, saturation and etc. I'm using FAST bundle on top of them for fast mixing. It really helps.
The necessary tools are virtual instruments and I also use not so many of them because every plugins have learning curve and all of us have 24 hours. I've been switching synth plugins to the free ones as they are good enough to make music.
Lastly, some AI plugins are pretty useful. That's all. I'm trying to minimize as much as possible.

 

Last edited: Jan 17, 2023

I think if you really want to minimize things, the Fabfilter workflow is very good. But you could sub that out with Sonible or FAST and have nuanced differences. With one of those, Logic stock; just Acon Digital Restoration or RX would cover most of the extra ground to fix stuff.
But why settle for one when you can have 5 that do the same thing?

 

My reply is prohibited by the forum rules. Anyway, my dear scientist, looks like your head had an overheat by taking too much thesis.
Go eat a pie.

 

I'm good for plugins thanks, but thanks for asking...

 

GAS is for real but it can be enough fun to warrant the disease. And it does spark new creativity at times.

 

Just need enough HD space and a backup habit.
I backup my OS drive every couple of days and have my archive drives (all software archives) mirrored. I've been able to do that on just one 5 TB for all my OS backups & personal data & one 8 TB to mirror my archives.

 

Love that idea. I remember trying something with symlinks a few years ago to get rid of everything I either didn't use, or had, but didn't have time to try. I need to figure out what I did, or a cleaner way to do it.

My music has improved vastly after limiting my plugins. I just want to find a way to sub some things in and out easily.

 

Please forgive me, I did not want, and I won't be more.
But after I got access to all the plugins, I had to have them all.
Sorry.

 

You mean the one where the artist A get his main idea from artist B and C and is promoted by the multi million dollar Marketing team and his backed up by a platform having an hand in the main publicity and informative platform and have the money to fake streams and buy their own release to create a hype so it can be seen as talent
OR
you mean we need the public to actually dig for talent that are already out there and have never been selfproduced since the audio industry have taken over in the early 1900's ?

 

I want more vocoders & spectral limiters
With vocoders, VocalSynth 2 is currently my favorite dedicated Vocoder. Other "vocoders" are often just modulation effects or pitch shifting which can sound good but isn't really the same as an actual vocoder. Antares vocoder is...meh. Waves is waves, I don't wanna have to deal with their BS.
For spectral limiters, you need the "bands" to interact with eachother somehow as to not "RE-EQ" the mix. Since if only the kick is peaking, it will only squash the kick and thus make everything else sounds louder in comparison. DMGAudio mostly avoids this by having the bands slightly dependent on eachother, so whilst technically there is still EQ'ing going on it really doesn't sound like this.
iZotope's spectral limiter heavily re-EQ's the mix as well as sonible.

 

The easiest way to describe plugins is as follows:

1) Plugins that add to sound.

2) Plugins that take away from sound.

With instance number 1, you're paying for the engineer's ear. If you find a plugin that you like the sound of a lot, that engineer probably has multiple plugins like that. If they're from the 32 bit era, they're probably effects or sampled based, bona-fide synthesizers only seem to pick up after 64 bit.

Download the Saxophone, Nanotron, and Space Echo from this:

http://www.dreamvortex.co.uk/instruments/

They're all quite good. I still have to try the rest, abut I expect that they will also be good. They're made in Synthedit, which some people dislike, but keep in mind that Synthedit is modules written in C++, so how many of these people were actually writing their own code in C++ as Synthedit modules?

EVM, (Etric Van-Meyer), also has an excellent plugin called Steel Guitar that sounds nothing like a Steel Guitar:

https://music-society.de/showthread.php?tid=2428

It's a Soundfont loaded into Synthedit, but who's code? Who wrote the Synthedit module? Is it just the loop point? Who knows . . .

I still have to try them all, but the choir is quite good as well.

When it comes to number 2, there's a lot of over marketing, particularly with compressors, but that's up to you, it's YOUR ear, and you learn about that by listening to music from many different genres. It's harder to now, Pedro's BTMusic tracker used to have an upload of the day, but it's gone . . .

Allmusic used to have an album of the day, but also it's gone (if you go back far enough in the archive.org Wayback machine you will find it, though).

https://www.musicradar.com/news/tec...bout their range of,things: vocals and bass."

http://web.archive.org/web/20060829...dows.com/analysis/Albums/HowToRead/index.html

You need something that can load Samples and with a work flow you find delightful.

You need something that can load Wavetables and with a work flow you find delightful.

You need something that can Generate Waveforms and with a work flow that you find delightful.

You need something that can Modify Frequencies and with a work flow you find delightful.

Anything beyond that, presets, etc . . . you're paying for the engineers ear.

It is beneficial to understand what is true and false, but it's second place to what you actually hear.

 

I only grab the "best of the best", which is obviously just my opinion, but anytime I see something tempting me I give it a shot and delete it if it doesn't get used after a week or so. I found that organizing my plugin list by manufacturer, then grouping them by type (ie eq, dynamics, distortion, modulation, etc.) keeps the list clean. Some may not like the grouping by manufacturer, but I find that when I think of the plugin I want I always think of who makes it, which is why I operate that way. I also have them divided into three main groups for creating, mixing/mastering, and sound design. This keeps the list manageable and not visually overwhelming. I definitely recommend going to your control panel and looking at the list of plugins that you could uninstall, clicking uninstall one by one and only confirming the uninstall if you feel that it wouldn't be used.

 

This article reversed me:

The Shocking Truth About Pro Tools Stock Plugins

20 years old plugins in comparison with newest premium ones

Listen to the mixes and think which sounds better...

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pr...-shocking-truth-about-pro-tools-stock-plugins

 

I try to keep a few favorites, references and compare "new stuff" against them.

Example :
THU Rig Player
Valhallah reverbs
Ohmicide
Spire
...
And i only keep a few.

Of course, it means my older projects are already rendered when i uninstall something.

 

NANI
PERIOD